Unboxing a (gross) vomit-inducing cup | V&A
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- The gloves are on as Angus Patterson, Senior Metalwork Curator at the V&A, reveals a mysterious and highly toxic object from not one, but two unusual boxes.
Find out what's inside the boxes, who used it and why rogue doctors in the 17th century recommended it for purging the body of a huge variety of ailments. Just remember, don't try this at home!
00:00 First glance at mystery box
00:23 Gloves for protection
00:41 Unusual box examination
01:04 Another box!
01:30 Object revealed
02:12 What's antimony?
03:01 The purging effects of consuming antimony
03:48 How was it made?
04:46 Meet the ‘quack’ John Evans
05:24 Vomiting, diarrhoea and sweating
06:06 Avoiding an overdose
06:59 Who owned this cup?
07:38 A letter from 1775 giving instructions on how to use the cup
09:31 Perpetual pills
09:54 Carefully re-boxing
Discover more from our metalwork collection: www.vam.ac.uk/collections/met...
See more objects being unboxed: • Unboxing - Zábava
Nothing procureth cheerfulness and gladness of heart like projectile vomiting and dysentery-level dehydration. A barrel of laughs, no doubt.
Hmm Yes, I often find that nothing causes a fit of laughter so readily as experiencing diarrhoea and vomiting.
Especially when one’s body kicks into third gear half way through a good and wholesome vomit. Simply breathtaking.
I'm watching Jesus Of Nazareth and this hits the spot 😂
To this day kids are still drinking until they throw up. Good times.
Cheers to that 🥂
I knew about antimony being used as a laxative, but I never knew it was also an emetic.
Fun fact: we can track Lewis and Clark’s path west because they used those perpetual pills and left antimony contamination along their way. Their physician was really keen on them.
Mercury based “medicine” too
@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 See, Mercury was for syphilis. You injected it up your peehole because heavy metals have antibacterial properties. Doesn’t work once it becomes systemic but at least your urinary tract gets clean.
WOW that is an amazing fact
They also used it to treat STDs that spread like wildfire
@@maddieb.4282if it is indeed a
" fact".....
What's the chance of happenstance of finding where a dude took a dump many hundreds of years ago in what was once vast wilderness....?
Plus....you'd have to find the
" perpetual pill" that they didn't collect. as the slight contaminate from it would long be gone.
Couldn't imagine doing such to yourself on a long trek, where you're probably already half dehydrated from constant diarrhea !
A bismuth cup should have been cast to cure vomiting and diarrhea caused by drinking from an antimony cup.
Lmaoooo
They could paint it light pink.
can you please explain the joke? I've only just heard of antimony for the first time in my life now
bismuth is an active ingredient in Pepto Bismol, a popular stomach medication in America, so the joke being this would counter the effects of this cup. :D
🇹🇱🇵🇪
If tiktok finds this you can gurentee they'll be bringing back antimony cups as some kind of miricle cure
Or another stupid challenge…
If Gwyneth Paltrow finds it she'll charge $500 a pop for it, and the cretinous tiktokers will pay it.
@@dahamsta hah yeah then Joe Rogan will have it on his show and halfway imply it might actually work all in the name of "I'm just asking questions"🤣
Ah yes. But will they be brave or stupid enough to revive the perpetual pill?
So far, my research does not yield any specific you tube video featuring the perpetual pill! The pill (contraception) has dominated the forum. Anyone find anything else associated with this? It's my pet project to find these odd, usually historical, things that are not yet on the Internet. It's a scavenger hunt that only grows more illusive over time!
they used to make pills you'd swallow and the recover the pill when you vomited
They say you're young if there's still something to experience for the first time. Here, I got to hear about antimony and its use for the first time! Thank you!
Thought you said "use it" instead of "its use" and feared for you
@@Skwadley As Angus very politely said, do not try this at home (please)
@@Skwadleyme too had to re-read that 😂
This is the kind of history I love to learn about. I never knew people poisoned themselves to throw up and feel better again. It makes sense 😂 but it doesn’t at the same time lol.
Subscribe - we've got plenty more where this came from 💩
I saw a documentary about a drug detox and rehabilitation center run by buhdast monks up in the mountains. No maintainance drugs. They have you purge for a total of so many days. Some more, some less depending. The success rate is over 90%. Don't know if its the trauma of it or the endorphins and dopamines that are raised after you throw up that makes them successful. Your body does naturally give you a feel good chemical to make you feel better after the bad feeling it gives you to rid whatever it needs gone from your system.
Very fascinating! It seems the trend of “health gurus” and their manipulative marketing has been going on for a centuries. The perpetual pills remind me of all these modern detox teas and juice cleanses people try. Thank you for sharing! I love learning about the daily lives and practices of people from history not just the big events.
That's a bit of a false equivalence because cures like these represented the most common medical theories at the time (humor theory dates back to Ancient Rome), and were thus intended as legitimate treatments, not deliberate quackery.
They have. Ever heard the term “snake oil” “snake oil salesman”? It was a popular thing. People would mix..whatever the fuck they wanted, and sell it as miracle cures. There’s a scene in Sweeney Tod where there’s a salesman selling miracle hair growth elixir, people rubbing it on their scalps. It was just piss. The scary part is this wasn’t at all unreal, and has happened throughout history.
Oh in the book, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe from 1722 tells all about charlatans who posted advertisements all over town about their many qualifications for plague treatment and how they had even worked for all of these famous people, when they never had and even worse, they wound up causing more harm than good. There's much more detail about it in the book, but it's nothing new. Lol
@@hautakleightontam771tell me you eat up every pill a doctor gives you without telling me. Are y'all actually equating detox teas and juice cleanses to medical quackery? 2 forms of medicine that have been used for millineia? The quackery comes from anybody claiming cure-all or selling cires that cause more problems than they help...idk like most modern medicine
Big time. All those "potions" and " elixirs".
The fact that these look indistinguishable from pewter makes the evil part of me wonder if they were occasionally used by accident, or deliberately in pranks.
'Here, sir, a draught of wine to warm you up!'
'Gracious thanks! Why, it tastes quite queer, did you perhaps *HHHRRRUEAAAAAGH!'*
This made me laugh WAYYY more than intended lmfaooo
Yes friend I share in your evility lol
When I read the vomit sound I imagined the Elder Scrolls Oblivion pain/death sounds and it made this like a hundred times better.
@@JackFoxtrotEDMthe noises you make when you puke means you are taking poison damage
So, effectively, antimony can turn you into a yarling Eddie Vedder. Scary.
I was really enchanted by that little straw box and how perfectly it has been preserved. I also wondered about the artisans who were casting and chasing those cups for Mr. Evans - if they died from exposure to the toxins.
It was probably scraped on the inside because people using them maybe scratched the inside with each use to make the wine puke inducing mixture inside more potent? Why else are their scratches? Spoons wouldn’t make deep marks like that, and in that up and down fashion either.
My father was a rather old soul and "induce vomiting" was the method taught to me from a very young age whenever I had even the mildest of upset stomach. I'm sure I would have used a "perpetual pill" if one had been floating around our family.
My mother, when I was about 6 or 7, would give us a drink of warm water with a hefty amount of sodium bicarbinate. It did a very good job of inducing vomiting, at least in me. Syrup of ipecac was an alternative kept in our medicine closet. Fortunately later she dealt with sick stomachs with hot Vernors. Much better.
My Aunt on my dad's side would make her kids take Vicks vapor rub for just about anything. Love those castor oil Tom and Jerry cartoons!
Uhhhmmmm @@residuefingerz
@@residuefingerz This is the strangest thing I've ever read hahaha
@@residuefingerzI very much hope you don't do that anymore
Sounds like an absolute nightmare for people with emetophobia (like me)
I'm right there with you friend.
This presentation is a perfect example of why the V&A is my very favorite museum in the whole world and why it is a must-visit whenever I am in Britain. Thank you. ☺️
The penmanship on the container lid and letter are exquisite
And here I've been relying on smoke enemas all this time.
Lol
You do you
Very interesting. I love the boxes as well as the craftsmanship of the preparer of the mold for the casting. As a woodturner, I really like to see these shapes. ❤
My meds don't always make me nauseous and dizzy, but of course they would while watching a video about a vomit inducing cup. Think I'll lay down for a bit.
Never knew they existed! Thank you for showing the cup to us all.
Always a pleasure 🫶🤮
wow, how bizarre. i cannot understand why or how this was just considered “normal”. i can’t imagine just doing that to myself on a random wednesday morning. that being said, i have emetophobia, so duh, but it just sounds awful lol. still very interesting though i will admit!
on top of the very interesting subject my german ears feast on this man's wonderful english
Comments like this are why Angus comes to work everyday
I’m fascinated by the German language. I’m currently learning it so I can use it in Germany and Austria. Best wishes from England. 😊
Same. 🇺🇸
History is so fascinating. Thank you for this wonderful video Mr Patterson 🙂
somehow the "perpetual pill" is way, way grosser than this thing is. Oh my god.
Right? Talk about burying the lead! I want to know more about the "perpetual pills"!
I suppose they made their servants retrieve and clean the pill. ew.
Family heirlooms 🤢
10:10 that tripped me out for a while lol
You know what might have been helpful? A 30-second quip about WHY antimony is toxic?
"It is believed that the toxicity of antimony and of arsenic is due to the fact that in combination with enzymes (the organic catalysts of the cell) they interfere with cellular metabolism." -Brittanica
It's also apparently very reactive when it comes into contact with acids (I'm going to assume this also includes stomach acid? Probably?)
@@user-hh7mr7qy6w Not stomach acid, but more specifically nucleotides and amino acids responsible for gene expression, replication and the construction of proteins responsible for the cell's biological functions.
Basically it can bind to DNA, and various other molecules in the cell which screws up how they function because your cells were not meant to use antimony to do useful work.
Google is free…
@erinbeaud4556 Okay? It's free but it took me like a solid 10 minutes to scroll around and find how antimony reacts with oxygen, acids, DNA, and a website explaining how it affects enzymes in the body. Not to mention that unless you've recently taken a couple science classes, a lot of these have to be translated into layman's terms. This is an antimony video. Don't be rude.
@@user-hh7mr7qy6w welcome to the internet. First time?
If 17 centery medicine is like this, imagine the fun you get from Mediaeval medicine.
I was hoping to see him gag opening the cup!😂
😂
This is wonderful wild (gross) medical history! I'm so curious -- do you all have any perpetual pills in your collection as well?
We don't! Wish we did though 💩
My great grandmother told her daughter of a poop stone for constipation and upset stomach could this be similar not understanding metal from stone? Truthfully we never believed her, but now@@vamuseum
Very interesting. Its really shocking what doctors perscribed as medicine in the past, like this or mercury, arsenic, or later even radium. I wonder what doctors in 300 years might say about our todays medicine.
They would say the past is all about trial and error but all these lessons about medicine give us knowledge as humans that we learned to improve it over time but I think pills, capsules and injections made medicine more portable compared to drinking out of a cup, bowl or eating herbal remedies
@@Mark_nobody3 They’ll probably talk about how our rampant abuse of antibiotics led to the development of superbacteria that they’re currently looking to cure lmao
~300 years from now~
"They did *what* to children's bodies?"
Transphobia is not a good look bud.@@cursedcancersurvivor
Cigarettes are literally legal . As a smoker I think it's mental
"here ye are my little grand child, granny will cure your tummy aches... Just take this and give it back afterward."
Child - " thank you granny, the pill worked great"
" thats good to hear, just give it back for future tummy aches"
Child- "umm yeah , about that part, I may have flushed it"
" You WHAT!!!! That pill passed through the rectum of 5 generations of this family! "
Antimony is a very strong purgative that will make you spew from both ends.
Similar to 7-11 pizza.
@@deanevangelista6359Gas station sushi
@@deanevangelista6359or the 711 version of the Dunkin Coolata. I have no idea if they still make it, last time I had it was '99, but I remember it always without fail produced diarrhea with back-pressure.
It would have been nice if you explained the more severe side effects this caused besides vomiting and diarrhea and a better scientific explanation of antimony on the body long term use etc
use your brain and google it.
Excellent info - Thank you. Wonderful boxes and cup.
That was fascinating. Thank you!
Actually purging is still common. I remember my grandmother would give me laxative if I had a cold because it would flush out the sickness.
Laxatives make you poop. This makes you throw up so it’s an emetic.
If your grandmother did it at least (I assume) 20+ years ago that actually suggests that it’s not still common 😂
@@maddieb.4282Not necessarily. It shows it's been used within living memory which is very recently when compared to the age of the item this video is discussing.
The “straw box” is actually mikmaq sweet grass box with porcupine needles. Originated in Nova Scotia.
Holy crap, that's cool. I'd ask how it ended up in a British museum, but...
Where are you getting this info? The decoration on the top looks like woven straw, not quills.
how do you know more than the specialist… they’ve probably tested these things not just throwing it out there on a whim
Yes, I'm sure the experts at a world-renowned museum have never had such a notion. 😂
@sentienttapioca5409 but...
my.
weren't our ancestors just a little...
like us.
quack cures still exist.
They were exactly like us-or rather we are exactly like them. We have more technology but we’re exactly the same as them in terms of our temperament our ambitions and our willingness to believe in the power of ridiculous things.
@@davidserlin8097 we are indeed!
@@davidserlin8097yeah for real just look how many fools believe in nonsense like religion.
Absolutely fascinating, thank you.
Amazing. What an interesting slice of history.
Fascinating information 🙌🏽
I think that the Oregon Historical Society has one that was in the collection of Dr. John McLaughlin of the Hudsons Bay Company
Wonderful video. Thank you! 👏👏👏
I used to wear antimony kohl every day. No wonder my eyes burned. It looked amazing, though.
It's actually beneficial for your eyes. Just don't ingest it.
@@Abuqital2000no the fuck is it not it can cause cancer just by being in contact with your skin!
@@Abuqital2000 Eww, stop writing harmful misinformation. Antimony is TOXIC you absolute quack!
@@Abuqital2000I’m pretty sure poison is poison no matter what part of your body you put it in.
@@Abuqital2000 I mean, I didn't get any eye infections.
I thought the title was roasting the horrible creation/design of the cup, but I see that it was simply educational.
Woo! I work for the company that made that XRF system :D
Fascinating. Thank you!
How many people died to figure that out? "I know! Lets make a cup of it and say its fir your health".
"Let's put a chunk of highly radioactive junk in a rubber bracelet and sell it through athletic influencers!"
This is an amazing am scary part of history. the Mutter Museum is a very interesting place as is your Museum..! I really enjoyed this ! I love to learn something new everyday!!!
Mind blowing.
You don't mention the antimony poisonings ... Notably the celebrated case of Charles Bravo who was murdered with antimony in 1876 in London.
I've read of the supposed virtues of purging, and had heard of these cups, but I hadn't ever seen one. Thank you for sharing. :)
Very interesting!!
Very interesting!
😃 Very entertaining and instructive piece of history.
Fascinating
“Its made of 99% poison, 1% of poison, and it a bit of actually useable substance."
I love these v&a presentations
A+ thumbnail on this
🫡
Absolutely love how this is filmed! I intend to use this same style for my own channel someday
Do the gloves transfer Antimony particles/debris from the cup to the outer most case?
Olde timey medicine was wild! 😂
Perpetual pills 🤯🤯😱😱
Im pretty sure back then a lithotomy was performed by forcing a long, solid metal chisel up the peehole all the way into the bladder, where the stones would be smashed apart by hitting the chisel with a hammer.
Lovely little procedure
FUCK THAT
I enjoyed this, thank you!
Wow! I had no idea.
If my body needs purging, it will do it without my help.
Cool!!❤
So interesting.
I would like to order one for my boss….I would have the outside decorated with roses
Lol - excellent idea!!!!
Very nice presentation on a nasty subject ☺️
Wonderful item, and great background material. Isn't there another antimonial cup in the National Maritime Museum? It''s many years since I visited but the antimony cup stuck in my mind (unless I'm misremembering).
Hilarious and quackary. I found the idea of handing down the perpetual pill particularly grotesque and amusing.
Yep and years in the future there'll be videos of the barbaric medical surgeries done today. I've got an unknown muscle condition and I have had plenty of weird medical experiments done on me. I got to go to Duke University this year to see if they can help identify whatever it is.
I died in August of last year my heart swelled and caused a heart attack. Doctors brought me back after 6 minutes. My family doctor said medical records should I died twice. I had open heart surgery and put on life support for a couple of months. The doctors and the nurses thought I was unconscious the whole time but I wasn't I just couldn't move or talk I never could get their attention. I had no family or friends that were with me I was 400 mi away from home why they transferred me that far from home I don't know.
Well that’s horrifying. Normally if you get transferred that far away, you need services not in the local area, or all the local hospitals are overwhelmed.
Wow! This is very interesting & scary at the same time! Do you remember what death felt like?
Oh gosh… locked in syndrome… absolutely horrifying
We send our condolences, and are thankful to have you as a living specimen for further study. I hope one day your condition is discovered and named appropriately, and maybe even cured.
I would have chosen a different photo for this video’s advert 🤣
lmao that pic of john evans
They found King Arthur's grail, and it offers the gift of perpetual youth.
Seems useful for cases of food poisoning? Very interesting.
What is that weird movement of the inner ring of the box at [10:10] ? His hands, sleeves, and other objects didn't "twitch" so it wasn't a cut in the video. That's really strange...
Sometimes boxes contain an inner layer much like a smaller box within them. You will see this in modern skincare where the outer jar has a smaller inner jar. Many reasons for this including that the skincare ingredients might react easily to temperature or the substance of the outer packaging. So an inner packaging/jar made of a different material is used. Sometimes it us simply because the outer material is leather that has been tooled, etched and gilded or straw like in this case. The inner box is plain and made of softer material to hold the cup snug without scratching the ornamental box.
So when someone said, "Humour me.."
Very interesting when we hear this with our history of homeopathy hat on
The trace amounts of iron could be from the refinement process.
Surströmming from Sweden:
“Am I a joke to you?”
I've never heard of antimony 😮
How the tables have turned. Now we go to the doctor if we have any of those issues that the cup causes lol.
What is with the frame at 10:10?
That painting of the woman vomiting is less emesis and more Lovelace..
I have never heard of antimony before.
Apart from vomiting what does it do to the body?
It causes cancer, long term. And the led will flush out calcium from the Brain. I´am shure there many more effects, I´am no physician tho.
I would have thought it was pewter. Sounds like it was a very effective device. 🤢
Reminds me of the Family Guy ipecac scene.
This is reminding me of how some people today take Kembo frog poison to be renewed ..or something.
Aye.. just a wee dram wull dae ya !!
The part that tickles me most is drinking water was so rare that people were drinking more booze to rehydrate which probably worked wonders for balancing the body 😹😹😹
The idea that people mostly only drank alcoholic beverages instead of water is a myth. Sure, acquiring water was harder back then and there was risk of contamination if you were downstream of another village or city, but for the most part, those who lived near water or had village wells would obviously draw from those. They also collected rainwater for use, and had city planners devising new ways to bring fresh water to their citizens.
Beer and ale were more nutritious, true, but they weren't a replacement for water. They were an alternative. Water simply wasn't interesting enough for most people to brag about it in the scripture, and those who could write books usually belonged to the clergy, who were also renown for making booze. Even today, people will express their love for booze and coffee but not talk a whole lot about water, simply because it's boring and mundane.
I reckon 500 years from now people are probably going to look back at our living habits and historical evidence and assume we probably drank more coke and coffee than actual water. It's the same with medieval people. Misconceptions.
I definitely drink more coke and coffee than I do water . . .
@@shaggybalboa8276
I'm the complete opposite. I like neither alcohol, coffee or sodas. I'm all about that H2O. xD
I'll trade kidney's if you want @@ivoryowl
@10:11 why is there a frame cut?
Довольно интересный артефакт 🤔
10:11 what happens with the lip of the box there 😮
The circular insert dropped back into place. It did look like a weird edit though 😅
Oh haha yeah that makes more sense 😅
You don't think about it much, but I am SO GRATEFUL to have been born in the 20th Century... lol
I wouldn't have done well in like 1154 ad... *: )*
Open wide kids, your inheritance is coming any second now! _straining noises and a toot_
It makes me wonder which of our medicines today will be thought of as dangerous or quack in the future.
I have a question. Why does the rim of the lid change when you you place the cup back into the straw holder. I am skeptical as I have seen the textures change in cut scenes
I noticed that too! I re-watched it several times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I'm glad someone else mentioned it.
I want one